Class Notes Profile: Nature Lover

Vivian Zapata spray paints a flower made from found materials for “Yellow Box,” a sculpture that reflects climate challenges facing the Earth. (Image by Stan Strembicki)

Artist Vivian Zapata’s work revolves around the wonders and perils of the natural world

By Lily Katz

Stare at a white wall, and you likely see it for what it is: a white wall. Vivian Zapata, ’08 FAA, sees a blank space awaiting transformation. “That’s the kind of space I like to work in,” she says, “all-white, clean.”

Zapata creates multimedia, large-scale sculptures from wood, foam, newspaper, artificial flowers and paint. Her artwork is inspired by nature and reflects how “our culture is becoming increasingly distanced from it.”

Zapata’s studio is a modestly sized spare room in her Skokie, Ill., home. Her in-the-works project is rendered in bright hues of red. Ligneous branches extend from the trunk of a red plastic tree, under which rests an unassuming block of foam, soon to be carved into a forest floor.

“Beneath the ‘whoa,’ I want people to walk away with a renewed sense of wonder,” Zapata says of her work, which is frequently steeped in symbolism. One example is “Yellow Box,” a painted sculpture in which an enigmatic room, furnished and wallpapered in yellow, is overgrown with moss-green leaves. “Meteor-ologists draw a yellow box around areas [with] severe weather,” she says. “‘Yellow Box’ warns us about the Earth’s [changing] climate conditions.”

Proficient in painting and sculpture, Zapata won first prize in the 2005 National Latin Grammy Contest in recognition of a brilliantly colored poster swirling with performers, instruments and musical notes.

“I make art because I love it,” Zapata says of her chosen profession. “Artists create gifts that come from themselves. That is special.”